Quality Education for All is an extension of our historical work on education issues. This project, permits us to "go deep" in a few places and work over a sustained period of time to dismantle structural racism. While we have been successful, the Quality Education for All Project allows us to broaden the scope of our attack on structural racism beyond one issue—taking a look at the interplay of policies that limit the opportunities of children of color.
The range of educational issues Advancement Project has tackled in the past have been a direct result of calls for action by our community partners and include: Title I programming and funding, school desegregation, special education, zero tolerance school discipline policies, tracking, and high-stakes testing. Examples of our past accomplishments include:
- Desegregation in School Construction:
In 1999, concerned African-American residents of Tunica County, Mississippi contacted the Advancement Project to request assistance with challenging the local school district's plan to build a state-of-the-art public school in the middle of a new development that would serve only wealthy white students and not African-American students who comprised a majority of the district's school population. It was clear that the construction of this all-white school would exacerbate existing inequities and strengthen the hold of structural racism in that community. Along with our partners, Concerned Citizens for a Better Tunica County and Southern Echo, we pushed the U.S. Department of Justice to oppose the construction of the planned school, garnered support of national civil rights organizations, the local member of Congress and the Congressional Black Caucus. We also intervened in the existing school desegregation case on behalf of the African-American community and gained national attention (CBS Evening News, New York Times and Washington Post) through our communications efforts. This strategic legal, political and media support from Advancement Project coupled with community organizing resulted in a positive outcome - the state-of-the-art school was built closer to the African American community making it accessible to all children in the County.
- College Preparation for All:
In Denver, Colorado, the members of the youth group Jovenes Unidos noticed that, in many schools, students of color were not being provided with the same academic opportunities as their peers. They also observed that when faced with such low expectations and meager educational options, many Black and Latino students became frustrated and dropped out. In fact, in recent years Black and Latino graduation rates within Denver Public Schools (DPS) have been as low as 38.6% and 30.5%, respectively. Members of Jovenes organized to demand the high standards and high-level instruction they need to succeed. In order to close the achievement gap and raise academic achievement for all students, Jovenes demanded that DPS adopt a baseline curriculum that would prepare all students for college. In 2006, they succeeded when the DPS School Board adopted new requirements to provide a college preparatory course of study to DPS students. However, Jovenes recognized that merely implementing a rigorous curriculum without ensuring that the necessary supports are in place to help students meet the higher expectations would set many DPS students up to fail. Thus, they have been working with Advancement Project on identifying the strategic supports and interventions that are necessary to ensure that all DPS students are prepared to succeed in K-12 and beyond. We worked with the youth to research successful practices in other cities, and we identified the components of successful schools that the students found to be missing in DPS. We worked with the students to develop a 9-part plan for fully implementing the students' vision of "College Prep for All," and the students presented it to district officials. We continue to work with the students to ensure that their vision of a school district that provides high-quality educational opportunities to all of its students is realized.